


to build a dream on

by magnificentbirb



Category: Naruto
Genre: Also Including Exactly One Small Cameo, M/M, Save Me From The Old Man Ninja Husbands, This ship needs more love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 13:26:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7270096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnificentbirb/pseuds/magnificentbirb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>They’re alone in the training yard now, the sun dipping just below the horizon, and Kakashi was on his way home when Gai suddenly decided to do something either very brave or very stupid.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>He is about to find out which it is.</i>
</p>
<p>A tale of four kisses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	to build a dream on

**Author's Note:**

> I've fallen into the trap of old man ninja husbands and I can't get up.

Gai’s palms are sweaty. He curls his fingers into fists at his sides, trying not to let them shake.

“K-Kakashi,” he says. His voice only cracks a little bit.

Kakashi turns back towards him, eyes heavy-lidded. “Yeah?”

Gai clenches his fists tighter. His fingernails dig into his palms, leaving small crescents behind. He and Kakashi just finished a contest in which Kakashi beat him to the top of the tallest tree at the edge of the third training yard, seemingly with no effort at all. When they descended—Kakashi casually, Gai with his head hanging—Kakashi was barely breathing hard, while Gai could feel the very muscles in his legs trembling.

Turns out tree-climbing is much more effort when you lack proper chakra control.

They’re alone in the training yard now, the sun dipping just below the horizon, and Kakashi was on his way home when Gai suddenly decided to do something either very brave or very stupid.

He is about to find out which it is.

Gai clenches his fists once more and asks, “Can I… can I please try something with you?”

Kakashi blinks. “Is this another challenge?”

“N-no, not exactly.” Gai tugs anxiously at the green fabric around his hips. “It’s just something I’ve been thinking about lately, and I think I’d like to give it a try, if it’s okay with you.”

“What is it, Gai?” Kakashi asks, narrowing his eyes.

“It’s a surprise,” Gai says.

Kakashi sighs and rubs a hand over his hair. “Fine,” he says, stepping closer. “But it’s getting late, so let’s make it quick.”

“O-okay.” Gai fidgets, not quite sure what to do from here. He scuffs his sandaled foot against the scrubby grass, which gives him an idea. “Okay, so first you need to kneel,” he says, dropping to his own knees. “Right there.” He points to the grass in front of him.

Kakashi lowers himself gracefully to his knees in front of Gai, still looking dubious. “Now what?”

“Now…” Gai bites his bottom lip for a moment, nerves singing through his veins. “Now close your eyes.”

“What.” It’s barely a question.

“Just trust me,” Gai says, trying to keep from sounding desperate; he thinks he manages pretty well. “Please.”

Kakashi sighs and dutifully closes his eyes. “You’d better not hit me.”

“I would never,” Gai says, scandalized. Kakashi just smirks; Gai can see the way his cheek tips up beneath the mask.

And then, suddenly, it’s time. Kakashi is there before him, still and calm and ready, while Gai feels like there’s a hurricane raging inside his chest. It would be so easy for him to just lean forward and do it now, but for some reason, that doesn’t sit right with him. He can’t just do this as a surprise, after all. He needs Kakashi to know; he needs Kakashi to say that it’s okay.

“It’s a kiss,” Gai says.

Kakashi’s eyes spring open. “A what?”

“I want to try a kiss,” Gai says, the words spilling out of him. “That’s what I’ve been thinking about lately, and I decided I wanted to try it, and I was thinking about who I’d want to try it with, and you’re the only person I could think of, but I’ll only do it if you want to, okay? And you can keep the mask on and everything, I swear, I just want to—I want to try. If that’s okay.”

Kakashi’s eyes are wide, and for a second Gai thinks that he’ll say no, and that this whole ordeal will have been for nothing, and Gai can just excuse himself and crawl into a hole for the next hundred years, but then Kakashi says, very quietly, “Okay.”

Gai’s heart leaps straight into his throat. “R-really?”

“Yeah.” Kakashi’s skin is turning a rather bright shade of pink, from the tips of his ears to the lightly freckled slope of his shoulders. He looks away shyly, his hands curling into fists on his thighs. “Let’s try it.”

“Are you—you’re sure it’s okay?” Gai asks, hardly daring to believe that this is happening.

“Yeah,” Kakashi says again. He lifts his gaze back up to meet Gai’s, thrusting his chin forward determinedly. “I’m ready,” he says, and closes his eyes.

Gai barely breathes. Kakashi has gone very still, the only sign of nerves his flushed skin, and Gai never knew that a person could flush all over like that, but he finds his own skin going warm at the sight of it. He licks his lips nervously and clears his throat, then carefully leans forward on his hands and knees. He pauses mere inches from Kakashi’s face, taking a moment to peer at Kakashi’s furrowed brow, his dark lashes, his flushed skin, and then he scrunches up his face in concentration and carefully bumps his lips against where he believes Kakashi’s lips are beneath the mask.

Gai pulls away almost immediately, his face burning. His heart thuds rapidly, and he can feel his head throbbing with the force of it; he wonders whether this is normal, whether all people feel like they’re going to faint from their first kiss.

He wonders whether this has changed everything, and his blood abruptly turns to ice in his veins.

Kakashi, meanwhile, has blinked his eyes open.

“Was that… is that it?” he asks.

“Did you hate it?” Gai blurts, and he is terrified of the answer, because what if Kakashi hated it? What if this is the end of their eternal rivalry that will turn out to not be very eternal at all?

But Kakashi just scratches at the back of his neck and looks away and says, “No, it was... fine,” and Gai feels like he can breathe again.

“You mean it?” he asks.

Kakashi flashes him an exasperated look. “I’m not lying to you, Gai.”

“I didn’t mean to imply—I just—good.” Gai seems to be having trouble controlling his words right now, not to mention the way his face keeps breaking into a giant smile, but he can’t really make himself care, because he just kissed Hatake Kakashi, and Kakashi didn’t hate it.

Kakashi clears his throat. “I should probably go.”

“Oh, right. It’s late,” Gai says, scrambling to his feet. He holds out a hand automatically to help Kakashi up, and part of him expects Kakashi to refuse it, but then Kakashi grasps his hand and uses Gai as leverage to pull himself to his feet, and then, for a moment, they’re just holding hands.

Gai wonders whether it’s possible for a human heart to explode from mere physical contact alone.

“Well,” Kakashi says, taking his hand back and shoving both hands deep into his pockets. “I’ll see you around, I guess.”

“Yes,” Gai says, rather dazed. “Thank you! For that.”

Kakashi flushes again as he turns away, ducking his head slightly so that his hair covers his eyes. “It was nothing. ‘Night.”

“Goodnight!” Gai waves enthusiastically after Kakashi’s retreating back until the late evening shadows swallow him up. Only then does he allow himself to let out the tremulous breath he’s been holding for the past ten minutes. He slumps against the nearby tree, still a little shaky, and starts to wonder how he can convince Kakashi to try kissing again sometime soon.

*

Gai lands heavily at the edge of the forest clearing, and the first thing he smells is the blood. The grass is slick with it, trampled and muddied and stained dark, and corpses litter the ground, in various states of dismemberment. Gai’s eyes are automatically drawn to the scattered bodies with holes burst through their chests, most of whom are face-up, their unseeing eyes glazed and wide with shock. Bile climbs its rancid way up Gai’s throat, but he swallows it down; he’s not here for the corpses.

“Kakashi!” Gai yells. The rest of his team already completed their scout of the area, confirming that there are no more enemy nin in the area, so Gai feels safe calling for his friend, praying that he’ll answer, that he’s able to answer. The report said there were casualties on their side, but there were no specifics yet, not this soon after the battle. Gai’s captain told him he could either wait to hear the full report from the ANBU squad leaders or go see the carnage for himself, but Gai knew the squads involved in the slaughter.

There was no way he could wait.

Gai steps into the clearing, scanning the ground for a shock of silvery hair. The prospect of finding Kakashi in this field of bodies is at once frankly terrifying and all-consuming; as horrible as it would be, Gai would rather find him here than not find him at all.

“Kakashi!” he calls again, a bit louder this time, a bit more desperate. He steps over the body of a young man who couldn’t have been more than seventeen years old and tries very deliberately not to look at the bloodied mess of the kid’s chest. Rather than dwelling on the young ninja’s blood-spattered face, frozen into a rictus of pain and shock, Gai focuses instead on the bloodstained kunai still clutched in the kid’s right hand, which could easily have been used against Kakashi, or any number of Konoha shinobi.

Gai shakes his head, ridding himself of such pessimistic thoughts, and lifts his eyes to scan the surrounding trees, hoping for some sign of where the surviving shinobi might be hiding.

Frustrated, he calls again, “Kakash—”

“He’s over there.”

Gai spins, automatically falling into a defensive stance, but there’s no need; the voice comes from a slight figure in a blood-streaked silver and black ANBU uniform, face still covered by an unsmiling cat-like mask, long black hair falling loose around his shoulders. The ANBU points to Gai’s left, into the shadows.

“You’ll find the Hound thirty yards in that direction,” says the ANBU, voice incongruously calm and polite in the midst of such horror. Gai guesses he can’t be more than twelve years old. “He’s being seen to by a medic-nin. They already know you’re here.”

Gai’s throat constricts. “A medic-nin? How badly—?”

“You should go see him,” the ANBU says.

“I will, thank you,” Gai says, and the ANBU nods, then starts picking his careful way through the corpses, sword drawn, ready to silence any survivors.

Gai hurriedly leaves the clearing in the direction indicated, trying not to think about the carnage he just left behind. All he wants is to see Kakashi, to make sure he’s safe. He tries not to think about the circumstances in which field medic-nin are generally needed, tries not to think about broken bones or stab wounds or amputations or—

“Gai?”

Gai stumbles to a halt, his heart stuttering in his chest at the sound of that quiet voice.

Kakashi is propped against a nearby tree, the hound mask shoved away from his face, partially covering his hair. There’s blood smeared on his arms and above the dark fabric of his mask, and he’s holding a wad of red-soaked bandages against his right side, clearly keeping pressure on a rather serious wound.

Gai stares at him, arms hanging limply at his sides. Kakashi is alive. He’s hurt, and bloodstained, and looking at Gai like he’s a bit concerned about his sanity, but he’s _alive_.

“Gai?” Kakashi says again, probing. “Are you okay?”

And suddenly, Gai has lost control of his mind. Everything has built up to this moment, all of the worrying every time Kakashi disappears on yet another dangerous ANBU mission, all of the concern every time he comes home chakra-exhausted and wounded and haunted by the things he’s done for the sake of the mission, all of the times Gai has felt limp with relief upon seeing Kakashi safely back in the village after being gone for two weeks, or four, or that awful stretch when Kakashi was missing for _ten whole weeks_ , on a mission no one could tell Gai anything about, other than that it was top secret and sure to be incredibly dangerous, only to have Kakashi show up on his doorstep at the end of the ten weeks, pale and exhausted and needing a place to crash while he tried to sort out his rent.

So this time, Gai lets his emotions take over, and finds himself stepping over to Kakashi, curling his hands into the straps of Kakashi’s gray flak vest, and dragging him up into a fierce, spontaneous kiss, right over the sweat-soaked fabric of Kakashi’s mask.

Kakashi makes a surprised sound against Gai’s lips, and Gai feels a strong hand grip his bicep, not pushing away, but squeezing hard, like a warning.

And then Gai remembers where he is, and where _they_ are, and he abruptly pulls away, breathing heavily, hands still fisted into Kakashi’s vest.

Kakashi is also breathing rather rapidly, but that could be from his wound, or just the shock of being grabbed right after the adrenaline rush of battle. His Sharingan is open and spinning lazily, and Gai quickly looks away from it.

“Sorry,” Kakashi breathes, automatically clapping a hand over his left eye.

“Not your fault,” Gai says, finally letting go of Kakashi’s vest. He absently settles the vest once more over Kakashi’s shoulders, trying to pretend that his heart isn’t beating fit to burst, that his hands aren’t shaking as he sets Kakashi to rights. “I’m…” Gai clears his throat, clapping his hands on Kakashi’s shoulders. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks,” Kakashi says, faintly.

Gai pats Kakashi’s shoulder one more time. It’s awkward. He wishes he were better at this, wishes they weren’t on the edge of a battlefield right now, wishes he could just drag Kakashi away from all of this, drag him home to Konoha, to his apartment, to _safety_ —

Kakashi leans forward, wrapping his free arm around Gai’s shoulders and squeezing tightly. Gai freezes, eyes wide.

“Thank you,” Kakashi says, his face half-buried in Gai’s neck. The hound mask digs into Gai’s shoulder, but Gai barely registers the discomfort. He wraps his arms around Kakashi, mindful of his wound, and holds him tightly.

“You’ll be home soon, yeah?” he mutters, for Kakashi’s ears only.

He feels Kakashi nod against him, and suddenly Kakashi becomes a heavy weight in his arms, clearly exhausted, his muscles trembling ever so slightly. Gai holds him up, burying his face in silvery hair, damp with sweat and more than a little blood.

“We’ll be home soon,” Gai says. He squeezes Kakashi, feels Kakashi exhale shakily. “I promise. We’re going home.”

Gai carefully maneuvers them so that he’s leaning against the tree Kakashi was propped against, with Kakashi leaning against him. He waits there, just holding Kakashi, letting Kakashi doze off on his shoulder as he runs a soothing hand over Kakashi’s back, until the medic-nin returns to check on his patient and inform them that they’re ready to move out.

It’s a sign for Kakashi to become the Hound again, to slip once more into the porcelain mask, into the silent, deadly apparition that is a proper ANBU shinobi, but he lets Gai travel beside him the whole way back to Konoha, and doesn’t shrug off Gai’s helping hand when he stumbles.

For Gai—for now, at least—that’s enough.

*

Their sushi dinner drags late into the evening, as Kakashi orders round after round of sake in celebration of his narrow escape from Hokage-dom.

“You would’ve been really good at it, you know,” Gai says after about four bottles. Their empty plates have been shoved to the middle of the table, and Kakashi is slouched comfortably against the table beside him, chin propped up by a gloved hand, visible eye curved in amusement. His cheeks are a little red from the drink, but otherwise, he might as well be sober.

Gai, on the other hand, is starting to have trouble keeping the room from spinning.

“At what, running the village?” Kakashi says. “I’m not built for politics, Gai. You know that.”

“The village, though,” Gai says, trying very hard to put his thoughts together, but he keeps getting distracted by Kakashi’s hands. They’re nice hands, really. Battle-scarred and a bit pale, but his fingers are long and his nails are surprisingly clean. Gai wishes for a moment that he could see Kakashi’s palms, but as soon as that thought comes, Gai shoves it away; the thought of Kakashi’s bare palms feels somehow intensely private. It makes Gai’s cheeks turn warm.

“The village…?” Kakashi prompts, his voice low and amused, and Gai remembers that he was saying something before Kakashi’s hands so rudely distracted him.

“The village,” he continues, forcing his gaze away from Kakashi’s hands and up to Kakashi’s eye. “The village would love you. _Does_ love you. And respects you. You’re a hero. You’d be a wonderful Hokage.”

Kakashi shakes his head, but Gai can tell he’s smiling.

“Being a hero does not a Hokage make,” Kakashi says. “Ah, well. At least we’ll never have to know.” He lifts his sake cup, preparing to drink, and Gai dutifully—automatically—looks away.

“You know, as much as I believe you’d make a great Hokage,” Gai says, staring down at his abandoned chopsticks, “I’m glad you’re not Hokage right now.”

“Oh?” Kakashi raises an eyebrow. “And why is that?”

“I’d miss you.” The words are out before Gai can think better of speaking them. He picks at a crack in the edge of the table, trying to ignore the way his pulse is suddenly thudding too quickly in his veins. He’s too close to truth right now, too close to baring something about himself that he’d hoped to keep hidden, but the sake is burning warm through his stomach, and he figures if there’s ever a time, then it might as well be now.

Kakashi doesn’t respond immediately, and Gai glances up. Kakashi’s eye has gone wide, and his chin has come off of his hand.

“What—?” Kakashi cuts himself off, starts again: “What do you mean?”

“Well,” Gai says, clenching his left hand into a fist in his lap, “we wouldn’t be having dinner together like this if you were Hokage, now, would we?”

Kakashi’s brow furrows. “I suppose not.”

“And we definitely wouldn’t be drinking.”

“Well, maybe not _tonight_ , but—”

“You know, that’s why I wanted to have our race today,” Gai says, staring hard at the crack in the table. He picks at it with a fingernail. “Before it became official. I wanted our last challenge to be memorable, before we never really got to have one again.” Gai shrugs, his shoulders strangely tense despite the alcohol in his system. “I guess I just… I wanted you to myself one last time before I lost you to the responsibilities of the village.”

“Gai.”

“One last challenge,” Gai says, and even he can tell that his cheer sounds forced. He plasters a grin on his face, finally looks up from the table. “It would’ve been so poetic, you know? The perfect way to say goodbye.”

“Gai.”

“But it’s fine now, right? You’re not the Hokage, so you won’t leave me behi—”

A warm hand grips Gai’s chin and tugs him forward into a firm, masked kiss. Gai freezes, his eyes wide and full of silvery hair and the dark streak of a hitae-ate.

Kakashi pulls back after a moment, still holding Gai’s chin. “I’m not leaving you behind,” he says firmly. “Weren’t you listening earlier?” Gai just blinks at him, barely able to form a coherent thought, let alone remember what happened earlier that day. Kakashi sighs. “You’re reassuring to have around, okay? I _like_ having you around. I’m not planning on leaving you behind anytime soon, and you’d better not leave me behind, either. Deal?”

“D-deal,” Gai says, watching in fascination as a pink flush blossoms across Kakashi’s cheeks.

“Good.” Kakashi leans forward to place another quick kiss against Gai’s lips, and then pulls back, pouring himself another cup of sake. “Well, now _that’s_ clear, let’s get well and truly drunk, shall we?”

Gai watches Kakashi pour and then smoothly turn away to drain his cup. He can feel a smile creeping onto his face, genuine, this time, because he’s not going to lose Kakashi; he’s not going to lose _this_.

“Gai?”

“Right,” Gai says, pouring himself a cup. “Well and truly drunk. Got it.”

Kakashi raises his cup in a solemn salute. “To freedom.”

“To freedom,” Gai echoes, lifting his own cup, but as he turns his attention to the clear, smooth liquid in his cup, he silently changes his toast to something that means so much more to him: _To my eternal rival._

*

Gai blows on his freshly brewed cup of tea, sending steam stirring through the air. He leans a hip against the kitchen table, watching as Kakashi bustles around the apartment— _their_ apartment, technically, but does it really count as “their” apartment when it’s still only Gai’s name on the lease, and Kakashi just happens to spend most of his time there?—getting ready for the day, shrugging into his usual vest, rubbing a hand over his still-damp hair (succeeding only in making it stand up at even wilder angles), buckling on a sleek new kunai pouch.

“What time do you expect you’ll be home?” Gai asks, curling his fingers tightly around the warm porcelain of his teacup.

“Not sure,” Kakashi says, tugging on his back-plated gloves. “I know the council has a full day planned, but honestly, I was hoping to duck out early and spend some time with Naruto this afternoon. He sent notice with Gamakichi that he’d be home today, and I’d like to see him before Tsunade catches him for Hokage lessons.”

“Ah, yes, it’s good he’s getting lessons from her, considering our current Hokage is already making plans to play hooky today,” Gai says, blowing on his tea again before taking a careful sip.

“Now, now,” Kakashi says, pausing by the door to tug on his sandals. “Just because I’m not playing hooky to hang out with you this time is no reason to make fun.” He kicks the toe of his left sandal against the floor, then straightens and fixes Gai with an expectant look. “Well?” he says.

Gai blinks at him through the steam coming from his tea. “‘Well,’ what?”

“Aren’t you going to give me a proper good-bye?” Kakashi asks, lifting his hands and crooking his fingers.

“Oh.” Gai flushes slightly and sets his tea down on the table, then steps over to stand just within reach of Kakashi. He inhales deeply and leans forward, placing his hands on Kakashi’s shoulders.

“Wait.” Kakashi holds up a hand, keeping Gai at bay, and then reaches up, hooks a finger beneath the edge of his mask, and drags it down below his chin. He lets out a deep breath, lips pressed together. “Okay,” he says, and he closes his eyes, just like the first time.

Gai freezes, eyes agog. This is by no means the first time he’s seen Kakashi’s face—years of trust and friendship saw to that long ago—but this is the first time Kakashi has openly offered up this, a flesh-to-flesh kiss.

Gai’s hands start to tremble slightly, and he can only stare. It’s rare for him to be allowed this, to have the chance to just admire Kakashi’s bare face. It’s a beautiful face, honestly, and Gai has long since harbored a secret sadness that such a beautiful face should be hidden at all times, but at the same time, he’s always felt blessed that he’s one of the few people Kakashi trusts with it. Gai is protective of this beautiful face at the same time that he is overwhelmed by it, a statement that also, fittingly, applies to the bearer of said face.

The bearer of said face who, after moments of silent stillness from Gai, has cracked open an eye to peer at him curiously.

“Er… Gai?” Kakashi says, a flush starting to spread across his cheeks.

Gai has no immediate coherent response. He knows he probably looks silly, his mouth agape and eyes wide, so he forcibly shakes himself to clear his head.

“Are you—are you sure?” Gai asks, and suddenly they’re kids again, beneath the tree in the third training yard, and Gai feels just as gangly and overwhelmed and awkward as he did all those years ago.

Kakashi is blushing in full force now, and Gai can see his lips quirk into an exasperated half-smile even as he rolls his eyes. “Oh, for the love of—” he says, and then he’s leaning forward, and soft lips press against Gai’s, firm and warm.

Firecrackers go off behind Gai’s eyes. He can’t move for a second, because those are Kakashi’s lips—soft lips, scarred lips, precious lips that go rather crooked when they curve into a grin—pressed against Gai’s, and it’s a bit too much for Gai to process.

But then he feels Kakashi start to tense up against him, start to shift like he’s going to pull away, and suddenly Gai’s hands are on Kakashi’s cheeks, pulling him close, and Gai is pressing back, and Kakashi’s lips part with a small sigh, and Gai thinks he might melt. He slips one hand behind Kakashi’s head, threading his fingers through soft, silvery hair, and with the other, strokes a thumb gently over Kakashi’s jaw, marveling at the sensation of skin on skin.

Kakashi pulls back for a breath, just for the barest moment, and Gai feels Kakashi’s lips quirk into that crooked smile.

“Is this really so different?” Kakashi asks, a bit breathlessly, letting his arms slip around Gai’s shoulders.

“Good lord, yes,” Gai says, leaning forward to capture Kakashi’s lips again. He feels Kakashi chuckle more than he hears it, and still, he needs to be closer. He wraps both arms around Kakashi’s back and, letting himself be momentarily overcome by glee, lifts Kakashi off the ground.

“You’re ridiculous,” Kakashi says, mostly against his lips, but he’s not trying to get away, so Gai really couldn’t care less how ridiculous he might or might not be. “You’re going to punch eighty trees and run laps around the village after this, aren’t you?”

“Two hundred trees,” Gai says, nuzzling Kakashi’s cheek. “And I’ll run the laps on my hands.”

“I would expect nothing less,” Kakashi says. He clasps Gai’s cheeks and presses a firm kiss to Gai’s lips. “Unfortunately, duty calls, so you might be able to run your laps earlier than expected.”

Gai sighs, resting his forehead against Kakashi’s, cooling his flushed skin against the cool metal of Kakashi’s hitae-ate. “Hokage duties?”

“None other.”

Gai reluctantly releases Kakashi, setting him gently back on his feet.

“Would you like to do the honors?” Kakashi asks, proffering his jawline and the mask curled just beneath it.

Gai reaches out with hands that are definitely not still trembling slightly and gently unrolls the mask, tugging it carefully back over Kakashi’s jawline, then over his lips, nose, until it finally settles neatly across his cheeks. He cups Kakashi’s face and leans forward, pressing a chaste kiss to Kakashi’s masked lips.

“Have fun running the village,” Gai says. “I’ll see you tonight.”

“You will?” Kakashi asks, brow furrowing slightly.

“I’m taking you out for dinner.”

“Oh?” Kakashi’s forehead clears, and his eye curves in a hidden smile. “And who decided that?”

“I did,” Gai says. “Just now. Now go, you’re probably already late.”

“You know me so well,” Kakashi drawls, and Gai spins him by the shoulders and shoves him gently out of the apartment.

“I’ll see you later!” he calls after Kakashi’s retreating back, already spiriting across rooftops in the direction of the tower.

Gai closes the door and leans against it, pressing his fingertips thoughtfully to his lips, still warm from Kakashi’s kisses.

_Better get started on those dinner plans_ , he thinks, and lets himself daydream about the night he has ahead of him, and all of the nights that will come after.

It’s not until four minutes later that he realizes his tea has gone cold.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I can't believe I wrote such fluff.


End file.
